Steve Jobs dead at 55, his life ended prematurely by chemotherapy and radiotherapy for cancer

(NaturalNews) It’s is extremely saddening to see the cost in human lives that modern society pays for its false belief in conventional medicine and the cancer industry in particular. Visionary Steve Jobs died today after being treated for cancer with chemotherapy at the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, California . In recent months, he appeared in public photos as a frail shadow of his former self. The thin legs, sunken cheek bones and loss of body weight are all classic signs of total body toxicity observed in chemotherapy and radiotherapy patients. Steve Jobs reportedly underwent both. His chemotherapy treatments at the Standard Cancer Center are now well known (http://www.marksmarketanalysis.com/2011/02/steve-jobs-on-chemo-may-have-only-weeks.html), and his secret radiotherapy treatments in Switzerland have now been made public by former Apple executive Jerry York. Jerry York confided in Fortune Magazine about Steve Jobs’ secret flight to Switzerland to receive radiotherapy treatment for his cancer (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/01/18/steve-jobs-went-to-switzerland-in-search-of-cancer-treatment/). Fortune Magazine kept this secret until Jerry York died in March of 2010 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_York_(businessman)), after which Fortune Magazine decided its confidentiality agreement with York no longer applied, and it published details about Jobs’ secret visits to Switzerland (http://gawker.com/5737092/steve-jobss-cancer-secret-revealed-following-sources-death). Fortune Magazine also repeats another fact about Steve Jobs that rarely appears in the press: Namely, that Steve Jobs underwent a secret liver transplant which raised eyebrows among many who wondered why a member of the wealthy business elite could receive a liver transplant essentially on demand while everybody else had to wait on a long transplant list (http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06-24/health/liver.transplant.priority.lists_1_organ-transplant-liver-transplant-united-network?_s=PM:HEALTH). In January of this year, Roc4Life.com reported: “Jobs’ medical leave is due to cancer, but no one knows whether it stems from his 2004 battle with pancreatic cancer or complications from a secret liver transplant in 2009. According to recently deceased off-the-record source from Apple’s Jerry York, Jobs took an unpublicized flight to Switzerland in 2009 to undergo unusual treatment at the University of Basel. Switzerland’s University of Basel known for their radiotherapy treatments for neuroendocrine cancer and it’s unavailability in the U.S. Experts say Jobs’ pancreatic cancer has a history of reappearing and spreading to vital organs at a slow-growing pace, which probably explains the medical leave.” In other words, there is no question that Steve Jobs underwent multiple conventional cancer treatments , including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In the end, however, even Steve Jobs could not overturn the laws of biochemistry. When you poison the human body, the result is the deterioration and eventual shut down of the body. Chemotherapy does not work ! This fact should now be obvious, and yet every year, more and more people choose chemotherapy to their own demise — people like Farrah Fawcett, Peter Jennings, Patrick Swayze, Michael Douglas and many others (http://www.naturalnews.com/027047_cancer_therapy_chemotherapy.html). Don’t they see that conventional cancer treatments do not work? Losing Steve Jobs is a loss of a great visionary It is striking that people who are geniuses in their own fields can understand so little about the fundamentals of human health. Steve Jobs was arguably one of the most influential visionaries of our time, and his development of human-technology interfaces revolutionized modern computing. Had he achieved another twenty years of life — and lived to 75 — he would have no doubt contributed to our world in even more profound and positive ways. Yet his remaining life was stolen from him by the cancer industry and its poisons. This is yet another frustrating example of how the modern medical system harms our society. It steals from us the longevity of visionary individuals who have so much more to offer our world in terms of creativity and innovation. Of course, you can’t blame the cancer industry for causing Jobs’ cancer in the first place. Some other cause had to have been present to get the cancer growing — probably a combination of nutritional deficiencies and exposure to environmental toxins. And yet the cancer establishment says nothing to people about correcting obvious nutritional deficiencies that lead to cancer, even when most cancers can be prevented for mere pennies a day. The simple combination of vitamin D and selenium , if taken in combination, could probably prevent more than 80% of all cancers in America (http://www.naturalnews.com/021892.html). Yet the American Cancer Society and all the mainstream cancer non-profits don’t dare advocate vitamin D or selenium. If solutions were readily available to everyone, how would the cancer industry maintain its profitability? The dark side of Apple This gets us to the dark side of Apple, because just as the cancer industry is a greed-driven monstrosity that incessantly seeks profits at the expense of others, Apple has increasingly become a corporation that has routinely chosen for-profit domination over public service. This is not so much about Steve Jobs himself as it is about those who surrounded him and ultimately exploited his talents for their own selfish agendas. Apple iPhones, for example, were recently exposed as secret tracking devices that record your location and upload that data back to Apple headquarters (http://www.naturalnews.com/032239_iPhone_tracking.html). Alex Jones even issued a special report just a few weeks ago, asking the important question: “Is Apple Evil?” (http://www.infowars.com/is-apple-evil-a-message-to-steve-jobs-infowars-special-report-w-alex-jones/) Apple has been caught intimidating journalists, blocking iPhone apps that allow people to make charitable donations, and even running manufacturing facilities in China with such poor wages and working conditions that workers there commit suicide in record numbers (http://www.infowars.com/is-apple-evil/) Apple has become the Big Brother it once opposed But most of all, Apple operates with a mindset of total monopolistic domination , requiring apps to be sold through its iTunes, where Apple takes an unfair cut of every sale. In fact, Apple has come to very much resemble the Orwellian Big Brother image that once made it famous in its January 22, 1984 Superbowl ad, which positioned Apple’s Macintosh computer as freeing people from tyranny. Watch that ad at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhsWzJo2sN4 What’s so striking about this commercial is that, in many ways, Apple has become the very thing it once claimed to oppose — domineering control, automaton conformity, and centralized command over the expression of musicians and programmers alike. The text of the ad says, “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like “1984.” Thanks to companies like Apple, 2011 sure is a lot like 1984. A clever response to all this appears in a parody video that pits Steve Jobs in that “1984″ video as a way to show that Apple acts more like Big Brother with each passing day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zhHwim6cV8 Anyone who has ever owned an iPhone knows all about being locked into a technology from which there is no free choice to do what you want with it. Why aren’t iPhones sold as “unlocked” from the get-go? Why do you have to hack your own phone just to free it from Apple’s domineering control? And why does your phone track your every move even without your permission or knowledge? Live by principle, because that’s the only thing you take with you You see, the more you look into the story of Steve Jobs and Apple, the deeper it all gets. And that brings us back to Steve Jobs and the topic of principles and ethics . All the wealth in the world couldn’t save Steve Jobs from cancer, of course. Here’s a question for you: In his final days of life, would Steve Jobs have traded every bit of wealth he owned for a healthy new liver and pancreas? You bet he would! And yet he couldn’t. Because it doesn’t work that way. When it comes to organ health, there are no second chances . You’re given one set of organs to live with, and if you can’t figure out how to take care of those with nutrition, healthy foods and avoidance of environmental toxins, all the money in the world can’t save you. Importantly, you don’t take money with you when you die , so collecting dollars or cars or even gold is little more than a short-term distraction set in the physical world. What you do take is a karmic record of your actions ; a “universal log file” of your principles and ethics, if you will. And that’s what matters in whatever experience or reality awaits us beyond this one, whether you believe in Heaven, or reincarnation, or ascension to higher plane of existence. Was Steve Jobs a positive influence on our world? Yes, I think so I don’t pretend to be qualified to judge Steve Jobs on all his actions here on our planet, but the only honest question in helping to answer that is this: “Is our world better off because of Steve Jobs’ influence? Or is it worse off?” On the whole, I believe Steve Jobs himself was a creative visionary whose talents eventually became co-opted by less-than-ethical corporate interests which operated outside his core intentions. This is precisely the reason why brilliant people should always be wary of “investors” or men wearing suits, because the whole purpose of venture capital is to grant people who don’t know how to really create wealth a way to sink their claws into those who do. This is why I have consistently and successfully resisted all venture capital and buyout attempts targeting NaturalNews. To bring in big money people would destroy the heart and soul of what NaturalNews is all about, in the same way that all the big money people who eventually surrounded Steve Jobs ultimately compromised what was originally an uplifting vision for human freedom and expression. (Even in the health industry, I can’t even tell you all the stories of brilliant, visionary people who have been betrayed by investors and corporate interests. It happens almost 100% of the time.) The real lesson in Steve Jobs’ passing, then, is not “oh wow look at all these cool gadgets he left us” — because that’s the juvenile view — but rather “what can we learn from Steve Jobs about staying authentic in our own lives and our own decisions?” What I’ve learned from Steve Jobs is that staying true to your vision is far more important than being commercially successful or collecting material wealth. Walking a path that gets your face on the cover of business magazines requires too much compromise of ethics and principles. The business community, after all, doesn’t usually celebrate real geniuses who share things with the world and make nothing from it. It only celebrates those who find clever ways to extract billions of dollars from the hands of consumers. In fact, you might even say that the business world actually punishes those who bring real innovation to the world — people such as free energy inventors , most of which you have never heard about because they ended up mysteriously dead before they could bring their inventions to market. Steve Jobs was celebrated because his innovations were consistent with the culture of mass consumerism and unbridled corporate greed — buy more computing stuff, and buy it often! That makes investors rich, and that’s the name of the game in the business world. Steve Jobs was celebrated, in other words, not for who he was on the inside, but for all the other people who got rich off him along the way. And that’s a shame, because even after his passing, I feel like we never knew the real Steve Jobs at all — the Steve Jobs who probably wanted to make the world a better place yet repeatedly found his talents being distorted and leveraged for bottom-line profits in a culture of greed that only cares about finding new ways to convince consumers to part with their money. Steve Jobs may be dead, but the domineering greed of those who extorted his talent lives on. The iPhone 5 will probably be out in a year or so, so we can all throw away our old electronics which end up in a toxic landfill somewhere, and then replace it with new electronics made in a slave labor factory in China. Isn’t technology great? Either way, may Steve Jobs rest in peace. May his name never be used for commercial exploitation again.

Infant allergies found to be influenced by diet of mother

(NaturalNews) A study conducted by scientists at INRA research institute in Rennes, France, and recently published in the Journal of Physiology, has revealed a possible connection between the mother’s diet and her baby’s immune development. The scientists looked at a specific group of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which can be obtained from raw, vegan sources, such as flaxseed, chia seed and walnut oil, and how it models the baby’s gut. If the mother’s diet is high in such fats, the gut of the baby will develop significantly different from that of a baby whose mother did not consume sufficient amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids. PUFAs are responsible for training the immune system to adequately respond to the presence of bacteria and other pathogens, successfully reducing the incidence of allergies in infants. Dr Gaelle Boudry, who led the research team for this study, pointed out: “There is intense research interest in maternal diet during pregnancy. In the western diet, the group of polyunsaturated fatty acids that we have shown to help gut function are actually disappearing — our dietary intake of fish and nut oils is being replaced by corn oils which contain a different kind of fatty acid.” Until recently, scientific studies had been able to identify a clear connection between oil consumption in mothers and a reduced risk of allergy in infants, but how these two elements link together was not yet known. Past studies have also revealed that an increased consumption of polyunsaturated fats can, in fact, increase the length of the gestational period, as well as improve the development of the central nervous system of a baby – with effects on performance and intelligence becoming noticeable during childhood. The group of targeted polyunsaturated fats is known as n-3PUFA, and it is responsible for making the baby’s gut lining more permeable to foreign agents, which, upon reaching the bloodstream, trigger an immune response coupled with the production of antibodies to repel the pathogens. These types of acids, also called omega-3 essential fats, have been linked to a multitude of biological functions, ranging from brain development to cellular growth and cardiovascular health. Dr. Boudry further explained that “the end result is that the baby’s immune system may develop and mature faster, leading to better immune function and a reduced likelihood of suffering allergies”. Recent medical statistics have shown that the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids in the general population has decreased steadily over the years and that this correlates to an increased risk of allergies and hypersensitization in children. Although this specific study was conducted on piglets, the French science team plans on furthering their research to see how their findings translate to humans. Piglets were especially selected for this study, as their intestinal tracts are fairly similar to the human gut, and data obtained from them is likely relevant to humans as well. Moreover, Dr. Boudry has expressed interest for the future in studying how an increased omega-3 intake can help fight allergies during adulthood. [Editor's Note: NaturalNews is strongly against the use of all forms of animal testing. We fully support implementation of humane medical experimentation that promotes the health and wellbeing of all living creatures.] Sources for this article include: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110908161444.htm http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2011/09/11/Mothers-diet-may-affect-babys-allergies/UPI-24341315714096/?spt=hs&or=hn http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-mother-diet-baby-allergies-.html

National Public Radio underwritten by Monsanto?

(NaturalNews) There was a strong reaction recently observed over public radio stations touting Monsanto and running Monsanto’s promotional ads. Technically, it wasn’t NPR (National Public Radio) as most assumed, but a program called Marketplace that is underwritten by Monsanto. American Pubic Media (APM) produces Marketplace. But both NPR and Marketplace broadcast during the same time frame from stations that are public radio affiliates. They share the same network apparatus and appeal to the same audience. Monsanto’s use of the APM platform is a crafty PR maneuver to suck in gullible listeners by using the “feeding the world mantra” while ignoring Monsanto’s dark legacy of profiting from toxic destruction and harassing farmers who try to do the right thing. (Legacy in source below) Naive Public Perception of Public Radio American Public Media’s 32 million listeners, many of whom are liberal academics, accept public radio as unbiased, truthful news coverage. The same is true of NPR. They are all considered not-for-profit public radio, and they are carried by local not for profit radio stations. But why don’t APM’s or NPR’s reporters and the majority of its listeners know what’s really going on with Monsanto? There are some really well done, accurate documentaries that reveal the truth about Monsanto. “The World According to Monsanto,” “The Corporation” and “Food Inc” are examples. They have all been released during this past decade and are available on DVD. The best of those three, “The World According to Monsanto” was even available for viewing on the internet until it was taken down – by Monsanto maybe? Perhaps politically correct public radio listeners consider such information conspiracy theory rubbish. Being politically correct is more important than conspiracy reality for many. And perhaps decent paying jobs in public radio are more important to journalists than real investigative reporting. NPR escaped culpability of broadcasting Monsanto propaganda by pointing to APM’s Marketplace, which aired this type of underwriting (sponsor) announcement for two years. Marketplace is supported by Monsanto, committed to sustainable agriculture creating hybrid and biotech seeds designed to increase crop yields and conserve natural resources. Learn more at ProduceMoreConserveMore.com. A more recent short documentary, “Farmer to Farmer,” clearly showed GMO farming is unsustainable. This documentary included GMO and conventional farmers’ testimonies. So here is yet another documentary ignored by public radio. Besides being a blatant lie on all counts, this announcement pushed FFC guidelines to the limit for public broadcast. Announcing who is underwriting (sponsoring) is allowed, but promoting or allowing that sponsor to promote is not permitted. While many listeners may have winced and let those short announcements go, there was a recent Monsanto propaganda report on Marketplace that many could not ignore. The title alone is the tip of the iceberg. The Non-Organic Future The title is “The Non-Organic Future.” It was not a report registering concern over all that threatens organic agriculture, as one would expect from public radio. It condemned organic farming as a threat to topsoil while praising conventional and GMO farming as the true solutions to feeding the world. (Report broadcast transcript in sources below) There were no interviews of anyone who opposed pesticide monoculture farming or GMOs. A couple of shills for GMO and conventional farming with establishment “credentials” did all the talking. And the reporter, Adriene Hill, introduced the report with this comment regarding the concept of small organic farms around cities “This isn’t the future — not if we want to feed everyone.” Get over it? Evidently Ms. Hill and Marketplace conveniently overlooked the 2009 conclusions of the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD), sponsored by the UN and World Bank. It took 4.5 years for the IAASTD’s 400 experts to arrive at the conclusion that small organic farming is the only way to maintain sustainable agriculture that could feed the world. Follow the Money According to Anna Lapp, author of Diet for a Hot Planet , the biotech friendly marketplace report was not sloppy reporting. Anna wrote, “Rather than being sloppy, it turns out that the reporting is actually a carefully constructed thank you gift for a prized advertiser.” NPR was not really the culprit this time . But let’s have a look at NPR’s association with Bill Gates and his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. According to a Seattle Times February 19, 2011 article “Does Gates media funding taint objectivity?” a $3.6 million Gates grant went to PBS’ News Hour, another $3.3 million to Public Radio International, $1 million to PBS’ Frontline, and $5 million to NPR . The Gates Foundation distributes these funds for “influencing policy and advocacy.” The approach is sly. Influence the public to get behind tackling issues such as vaccinations and “sustainable” farming to cure the world’s ills. This is the same Bill Gates who now owns a huge chunk of stock in Monsanto valued at over $23 million in 2010. And it’s the same Gates who announced this century as the vaccine century, which he went on to say could help reduce the world population by 15%. Vaccines cause more harm than good and have been used as carriers of infertility agents in third world vaccination campaigns. Yes, appearing like a mild-mannered concerned geek gets a lot of support from the politically correct naive who don’t know the dark side of GMOs and vaccinations. Gates’ approach is sly and slick. He usually appeals to the need for actions rather than the what the actions really do. This makes it easier for public opinion to marginalize critics of GMOs and vaccinations, even when they are forced in Africa by gunpoint. (Natural News below) A financial alliance with Monsanto, directly or indirectly, is a pact with the devil. Despite public radio’s claiming their reporting is not affected by its “underwriters”, a public radio euphemism for sponsor, the Marketplace report and its Monsanto ads prove otherwise. One does not bite the hand that feeds it, especially if it’s the devil’s hand. Organic Consumer Organization’s (OCA) Millions Against Monsanto would like you to email a complaint in your name to Marketplace/APM using their form via this link. http://capwiz.com/grassrootsnetroots/issues/alert/?alertid=13418576 Sources used in this article and for your perusal: Monsanto’s dark legacy http://www.badseed.info/resources/monsanto.pdf The transcript from the “Non Organic Future” Mareketplace report http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/05/04/pm-the-non-organic-future/ Gates policy influence media funding amounts http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014280379_gatesmedia.html Gates Foundation Monsanto investments http://www.infowars.com/gates-foundation-invests-in-monsanto/ Gates Foundation gunpoint forced vaccinations in Africa http://www.naturalnews.com/033119_vaccinations_gunpoint.html NPR Monsanto funding disclaimer http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2009/06/npr_is_not_running_monsanto_sp_1.html American Public Media site http://americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/ Monsanto targets public media to propagandize http://www.grist.org/article/national-public-propaganda

UNICEF using African refugee crisis to target 300,000 Kenyan children for vaccination

(NaturalNews) You never want a serious crisis to go to waste: these are the now-infamous words uttered by former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel during the early days of the currently-in-motion financial meltdown, and they are ones that ring eerily true with a new vaccination campaign taking place in Kenya. Recent reports explain that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is taking advantage of the mass influx of refugees from Somalia into Kenya by pushing polio and measles vaccines on 300,000 Kenyan children. Extreme famines, religious persecution, and various other factors have driven hundreds of thousands of Somalians into nearby Kenya over the past several months. Many of the refugee camps taking in these migrants are now at the brink of, or have already exceeded, their maximum capacity. But even worse, say authorities, is the fact that the mass relocation is bringing about a host of new diseases, and the need to protect the children is greater than ever. On the surface, such concern and effort makes perfectly logical humanitarian sense. After all, who would oppose protecting children against potentially life-threatening illnesses? Unfortunately, UNICEF’s plan for helping during this crisis has been birthed out of the same train of thought as that of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose partners have literally held women and children at gunpoint to force vaccinations on them (http://www.naturalnews.com/033119_vaccinations_gunpoint.html). Nevertheless, UNICEF says it is pushing vaccines on children at this time in order to “prevent an outbreak of disease,” according to a recent Associated Press (AP) report. Refugees are potentially harboring these life threatening diseases, they say, and this is why UNICEF has announced that it will hold a two-week vaccine drive to push the shots in various parts of northern Kenya where refugees are most prevalent, including at Dadaab, the world’s largest refugee camp. UNICEF pushing for same ‘Millennium Development Goals’ as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which include mass vaccinations The United Nations (UN), which presides over UNICEF, has been on a stated mission to “end poverty” as part of its eight “Millennium Development Goals” (MDG). And this international quasi-government has reined in many organizations and foundations to help achieve its goals: the other seven of which include universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combating HIV and AIDS, environmental sustainability, and global partnership. And one of the group’s allies is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Why is this a big deal? Two MDGs in particular, child health and maternal health, both involve vaccinating children against diseases like measles and polio. And this does not imply vaccinating just some children, either — it means all of them. The Child Health Fact Sheet, for instance, clearly states that “[c]onsiderable progress” has been made in increasing measles vaccination rates among African children, as the 70 percent rate in 2000 has now eclipsed 81 percent in 2008. But the obvious goal is 100 percent, as the group is petitioning for ever-more money to fund its universal vaccine campaign (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/childhealth.shtml). Likewise, the Maternal Health Fact Sheet, though it does not specifically mention vaccines, talks about increasing expectant mothers’ access to “reproductive health services, equipment, supplies and skilled healthcare workers.” These healthcare workers will not only help pregnant women achieve delivery in a safe environment, but they will also gain an easier footing in convincing mothers that their newborns need to be immediately vaccinated in order to prevent more disease (http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/maternal.shtml). Both the Child Health and Maternal Health sections appear to have been designed for the purpose of decreasing sickness and mortality, as well as improving quality of life for Africans — and on the surface, this is an admirable mission. But the devil is in the details, as one of the primary thrusts behind the UN’s health initiatives is simply to get more people vaccinated. A recent incident in Malawi, for instance, where children were forced at gunpoint to receive measles vaccines, illustrates precisely the type of “child health” that international organizations like UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are promoting (http://www.naturalnews.com/033119_vaccinations_gunpoint.html). This implies that MDGs are not optional — in other words, they will be imposed by force if necessary. Worse, one of the MDG’s stated partnerships is with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI Alliance), whose stated purpose is to “accelerate access to vaccines, strengthen immunization systems and introduce innovative new immunization techniques.” Bill Gates made his now-infamous statements about vaccinating every child on the planet, for instance, at a recent GAVI Alliance conference (http://www.naturalnews.com/032900_Bill_Gates_vaccinations.html). So when you put all the pieces together and read between the lines, it is clear that the MDG goal of improving the health of women and children means something entirely different than simply providing them access to healthcare options. There is a much more sinister agenda at play here that involves essentially forcing things like pharmaceuticals and vaccines on the unwitting poor for profit and political gain. And UNICEF’s current efforts in Kenya appear to be just another step towards implementing universal compliance with its vaccine agenda. Sources for this story include: http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110727/ap_on_he_me/af_east_africa_vaccines

Common class of pain drugs reduces severity of postpartum breast cancers

During involution — the process during which milk-producing cells are killed and replaced by fat cells — the breast is especially susceptible to the development of aggressive cancers. This study shows that NSAIDs like ibuprofen reduce the severity of these cancers.

Large study confirms that omega 3s produce healthy babies

(NaturalNews) Consumption of omega-3 fatty acids is crucial for the development and maintenance of the brain and nervous system, especially in young children (http://www.naturalnews.com/016353.html). And a new study published in the journal Pediatrics adds to this, having found that pregnant women who supplement with Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) during their pregnancies produce children that are much healthier and less prone to sickness than those born to women who do not supplement with, or otherwise consume enough, DHA. Dr. Usha Ramakrishnan, associate professor at Emory University’s Hubert Department of Global Health, and her team conducted a randomized, placebo-controlled trial on 1,100 pregnant women and 900 infants from Mexico. Some women received 400 milligrams (mg) of DHA, while others received a placebo, during the 18 to 22 weeks of gestation through childbirth. After all the women eventually gave birth, children born to mothers in the DHA group experienced less overall sickness, and shorter duration of sickness. Some of the results are as follows: -At one month of age, babies from the DHA group were 25 percent less likely to catch a cold or have a cough with phlegm or wheezing. -At three months of age, babies from the DHA group experienced 14 percent less illness time than those from the placebo group. -And at six months, DHA babies had less fevers, nasal secretions, breathing problems, and rashes than babies from the control group. “This is a large scale, robust study that underscores the importance of good nutrition during pregnancy,” remarked Ramakrishnan. “Our findings indicate that pregnant women taking 400 mg of DHA are more likely to deliver healthier infants.” The form of DHA used in the study was derived from algae, which is not necessarily an ideal form. In some cases, companies are actually using genetically-modified (GM) algae to create omega-3 oils. Monsanto is even working on gaining FDA approval for a GM soybean that artificially produces omega-3s, which is why it is important to know the source of your omega-3s before consuming them (http://blogs.forbes.com/jeffmcmahon/2011/04/11/monsanto-modifies-soy-beans-to-grow-fish-oil/). DHA, as well as the entire gamut of omega-3s that includes arachidonic acid (ARA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), can be found in natural foods like grass-fed meats, salmon, flax, and hemp. They can also be found from high-quality fish and cod liver oils, as well as salmon oil (http://www.naturalnews.com/omega-3.html). Sources for this story include: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/eu-ssp080111.php

Dangerous levels of lead found in many garden hoses

(NaturalNews) Allowing your kids to play with the garden hose, filling the inflatable kiddie pool, nourishing your garden with hose water — these all seem like harmless activities. However, research is now proving otherwise. Many commercially bought water hoses contain dangerously high levels of lead which leech into the water flowing through them. In fact, according to Consumer Reports, water sitting in a garden hose that has been left in the sun can contain a level of lead that reaches 100 times over what is considered a safe amount. Many garden hoses are made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) – a toxic plastic – and lead is often used as a stabilizer in PVC. The dangerous levels of lead in garden hoses could potentially cause lead poisoning, cancer, birth defects and/or reproductive harm. According to a special ABC report on Good Morning America, reporters from ABC’s Phoenix affiliate KNXV-TV randomly purchased 10 garden hoses at places such as Wal-Mart, Target, Ace Hardware, and Home Depot (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/story?id=3369894&page=1). These reporters filled sections of the garden hoses with clean water, sealed the ends and put these hoses outside for about a day. The water was then delivered to a lab. Five of the 10 hoses, or 50%, came back showing levels of lead much higher than 15 parts per billion (ppb), which is what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems safe for drinking water. Four of those hoses came back showing extremely high lead levels. The same report found that some garden variety hoses are leaking up to 20 times the amount considered safe for usage. Consumer Reports also tested 16 of the most popular hoses sold nationwide, finding that many leached up to 100 times the safe amount at the initial flush of standing water. Imagine the water flowing through these hoses contaminated with such high levels of lead – do you want your kids splashing around in it in a kiddie pool, or drinking it in the midst of summer play outdoors? Why exactly is lead exposure so dangerous? Lead is highly toxic and harmful even in very low doses. The Environmental Protection Agency clearly states on their website that exposure to lead in water that is being consumed above the action level, or 15 ppb, can result in delays in physical and mental development in children, anemia, and muscle problems. In adults, it can cause increases in blood pressure and, eventually with heavy exposure, the development of kidney problems or nerve disorders. According to the National Safety Council, young children under the age of six are especially vulnerable to lead’s harmful effects because their brains and central nervous system are still being developed. For these children, even very low levels of exposure can have disastrous effects, from reduced IQ and behavioral problems to stunted growth and kidney damage. At higher levels of exposure, children could become mentally retarded, fall into a coma, and even die from lead poisoning. Within the last decade, children have died from lead poisoning in both New Hampshire and in Alabama. Lead can also enter tap water through corrosion of plumbing materials, which is another important reason to invest in a good water filter. Homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead pipes; however, new homes are also at risk because even legally “lead-free” plumbing can contain up to 8 % lead. Lead-laden soil and your beloved garden And let’s not forget about the fate of your garden. The same lead-infused water your children may be playing in is most likely also being used to saturate the soil your fresh-grown veggies are growing in. A disheartening New York Times article on lead in garden soil said that lead is “surprisingly prevalent and persistent” in both urban and suburban soil, which is more increasingly being used for the foundation of home gardens. Many health officials, soil scientists and even environmental engineers are concerned that the increasing popularity of urban “backyard” gardening will put more people at risk for lead poisoning and other hazardous health effects especially those that don’t protect themselves. The EPA and Department of Housing and Urban Development suggest — but don’t require — lead levels in soil of lower than 400 parts per million (ppm) in children’s play areas, and 1,200 p.p.m. in all other soil. However, many and cities, states, and entire countries have set much lower limits, such as in the Netherlands, where 40 p.p.m. is considered highly substandard. Most unpolluted soil averages about 10 p.p.m. In the New York Times article mentioned, one random urban resident’s garden had soil containing lead levels of 939 p.p.m. Dangerous amounts of lead have been documented for almost a decade in backyard and community gardens in major cities such as New York, New Orleans, Boston, Chicago, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and many others. Lead-laden soil has been found in both inner city neighborhoods and suburban areas. The reasons for these hazardous levels of soil contamination are many, from lead paint, leaded gasoline, lead arsenate pesticides, lead plumbing, lead batteries and automotive parts, roadways, and so on. While many of these products may have been banned years ago, the remnants of highly toxic lead often remain in the environment. Now, lead-laden garden hoses can be added to the list of dangerous hidden lead. How to avoid lead contamination While environmental engineers and soil experts have said any place is potentially tainted with soil contaminated with lead, there are steps that can be taken in order to protect yourself and your family. First, eliminate the potentially poisonous garden hose and replace it with one you know for certain is safe and lead-free. This will drastically reduce the amount of lead being deposited in your yard and notably eliminate direct exposure when watering by hand or caring for the garden. A lead-free garden hose is also much safer for providing children a much-needed drink or play in the sprinklers, and pets will also be spared of potential lead poisoning from water bowls filled from the hose. Warning labels accompany hoses in some cases, but not all. A lead-free garden hose will clearly be marked as safe for drinking. One idea is to invest in a medical grade hose with nickel-plated fittings. These hoses are often sold as marine or recreational vehicle (RV) hoses and are commonly sold in marine/RV stores. The types of garden hoses that Consumer Reports claim to be safe from lead contamination are as follows: • Teknor Apex Boat and Camper NeverKink • Swan Marine/Camper • Gardener’s Supply Co. 33-469 • Better Homes and Gardens Kink-free Keep in mind that these manufacturers might produce other hoses that are not lead-free, so read packaging closely to ensure you have the right hose. Although it is impossible to eliminate all contaminates from the environment, switching to a lead-free garden hose is a good start as well as an intelligent choice for the health conscious consumer. The widespread presence of lead contamination in soil doesn’t mean you have to give up gardening, but it does suggest the necessity of caution, as well as a possible change in plot design and crop choice. Local public health departments and county extension services often offer free soil testing; at the least, they can recommend companies or schools that do it for a small fee. Individuals generally mail dirt in sealed plastic bags for analysis. If high levels of lead are found in your soil, experts advise covering it with sod. You can also alkalinize the contaminated soil by adding organic matter such as compost and lime, or replace it entirely. Soil with a pH level above 7 binds with lead, which lessens the chance of absorption by both crops and the human body. Fortunately, the body will eliminate low levels of lead naturally, as long as you maintain a healthy daily diet. Home gardens can be planted with fruiting crops such as squash, eggplant, tomatoes, corn and beans because these plants don’t easily absorb lead. Some lead-leaching crops are leafy greens, herbs, and root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots. Sources: http://containergardening.about.com/b/2009/05/21/warning-lead-in-garden-hoses.htm http://healthy-family.org/caryn/24/lead-poisoning-and-your-garden-hose http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/garden/14lead.html?_r=1&hp http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/story?id=3369894&page=1 http://containergardening.about.com/od/greencontainergardening/a/Gardenhose.htm http://water.epa.gov/drink/info/lead/index.cfm

Help save Nick’s Organic Farm from government takeover!

(NaturalNews) A 31-year-old heritage organic farm in Maryland is being threatened with takeover by the county in which it is located, and your help is needed to stop these efforts. Nick’s Organic Farm is the only farm in Montgomery County, Md., that produces organic seeds, and it is strategically located in a uniquely protected area far away from genetically-modified (GM) crops and other contamination factors. But the county’s education board recently voted to turn this special farm into a private soccer field complex, of which there are already hundreds throughout the region. Nick Maravell of Nick’s Organic Farm has been cultivating the special 20-acre plot of clean, protected land in Potomac, Md., for the last three decades. Located just outside of the Washington, D.C., area, Nick’s Organic Farm is also one of just a few organic seed-producing farms in the entire Chesapeake region, which makes it an even more invaluable asset to local citizens. For 30-plus years, Nick’s Organic Farm has been supplying the local community with fresh, organic produce, and it has also supplied countless farmers with its uncontaminated, organic seeds. The farm’s many years of cultivation have also created nutrient-rich, organic soil, which as some NaturalNews readers already know cannot be created overnight. Soil microorganisms and organic matter take years to develop and mature, and once they become established, they produce healthy soil for growing highly-nutritious, nutrient-dense produce. In other words, if Nick’s Organic Farm is replaced by soccer fields, it will likely be lost forever. The farm cannot simply be moved to another site because it would take years to become established, both in terms of organic certification and soil maturity level. Soccer fields, on the other hand, can be located anywhere without much issue. With all this in mind, it becomes abundantly clear how foolish it is to destroy the local treasure that is Nick’s Organic Farm to develop a soccer complex that could easily be located elsewhere. And yet that is precisely what Montgomery County officials are attempting to do in this case. Despite the fact that Nick’s Organic Farm is responsible for helping start numerous organic farming organizations throughout the state, including the Maryland Organic Food and Farming Association, the Maryland Small Farm Cooperative, and Future Harvest – Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, officials seem to think that soccer fields will be a better fit. Unfortunately, Nick Maravell does not actually own the land in question — it is an unused part of Brickyard Road Middle School that the county has been leasing to Maravell for the past several decades. It is a situation that has resulted in numerous benefits for both citizens and local and state farming efforts, but one that the county officials apparently view as inconsequential. According to reports, the Montgomery County Board of Education (MCBOE) met with Montgomery County Executive Isaiah “Ike” Leggett back in March to discuss the issue of turning the land into soccer fields, and the two groups did so in secret. Shortly thereafter, the board voted to turn Nick’s Organic Farm into ball fields, and gave Maravell only two business days notice that his lease would be expiring. News of this sudden land-use change immediately sent the community into an uproar, especially when they discovered that Leggett’s office had been in contact with soccer organizations for several years prior to the surprise vote. Government officials appear to have completely disregarded the appropriate open process by which surplus land use is evaluated, and instead discreetly made plans for the site behind the scenes without public input. Worse, citizen inquiry into the matter revealed that county officials had succumbed to financial lobbying by Montgomery Soccer Inc. (MSI), a large soccer organization that had been pushing for the development of more soccer fields in the area. The county’s actions clearly violated its own master plan rules — these rules dictate that land-use decisions must be open and transparent, as well as adhere to specific guidelines — and instead conducted an illicit business deal in secret. On June 9, a public meeting was held at the Potomac Community Center to discuss the issue, and many local residents spoke out against the county’s unethical, and potentially illegal, decision. You can watch a video montage of that meeting here: http://vimeo.com/24995214 Supporters of Nick’s Organic Farm have also set up a website to help save it from being destroyed. There, you will find a petition, information about contacting Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett, and a place to sign up to help volunteer with the campaign: http://www.savenicksorganicfarm.org/ The Cornucopia Institute (CI) has also posted a job opening for a local field organizer to help organize activities, coordinate volunteers, and develop strategies to win the fight against Montgomery County and save Nick’s Organic Farm. You can learn more about that job opportunity here: http://www.cornucopia.org/2011/07/help-wanted-local-field-organizer-for-campaign-to-save-maryland-organic-farm/

BPA plastics chemical found to feminize males

(NaturalNews) Don’t worry, be happy. Just ignore the fact that countless researchers have warned time and time again that the chemical bisphenol A (BPA for short) is a major hormone disruptor and is a huge threat to human health. After all, we must all be safe because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would have banned the stuff long before now if there was really any problem, right? If you agree with the above, you might also think the deadly radiation still spewing from nuclear reactor meltdowns in Japan is nothing to worry about, either. But the truth is always better than sticking your head in the sand, and this is exactly what the FDA seems to be doing when it comes to BPA. Here’s the latest breaking news on what has become an environmental nightmare for both humans and possibly wildlife while the FDA does nothing but express “some concern” that BPA might not be perfectly safe. University of Missouri researchers have evidence that BPA causes male deer mice to lose their masculinity and behave more like females. In fact, female mice sense something isn’t quite “right” about BPA exposed males and don’t want to mate with them. The scientists conclude that exposure to BPA during human development could also be wreaking havoc on hormones and distorting and disrupting behavioral and cognitive traits that are unique to each sex and important in reproduction. “The BPA-exposed deer mice in our study look normal; there is nothing obviously wrong with them. Yet, they are clearly different,” said Cheryl Rosenfeld, associate professor in biomedical sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and investigator in the Bond Life Sciences Center, in a statement to the media. “Females do not want to mate with BPA-exposed male deer mice, and BPA-exposed males perform worse on spatial navigation tasks that assess their ability to find female partners in the wild.” “This study sets the stage for BPA researchers to examine how BPA might differentially impact the behavioral and cognitive patterns of boys versus girls,” Rosenfeld added. “Investigators looking for obvious BPA-induced differences, such as chromosome deletions or DNA mutations, could be missing subtle behavioral differences that eventually lead to long-term adverse outcomes, including demasculinization of male behaviors with a decreased reproductive fitness.” For the new study, the researchers fed female deer mice a BPA-supplemented diet for two weeks prior to breeding and throughout lactation. The mothers were given a dosage equivalent to what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers a non-toxic dose for pregnant women to ingest. When the deer mice offspring were weaned at 25 days of age, they were fed on a non-supplemented BPA diet. Then, after the rodents matured into adults, their behavior was tested to study each mouse’s ability to navigate a maze to safety. Male deer mice normally have an enhanced spatial navigational ability. It’s important because it allows them to find female mates that are dispersed throughout the environment. Female deer mice do not need to search for mates so their navigational abilities have not been enhanced by evolution. But when the University of Missouri researchers tested the navigational skills of male mice that had been exposed to BPA early in their development, something was terribly wrong. Each male mouse had two five minute opportunities per day, for seven days, to try to find their way in to a home cage through one of several holes placed around the edge of an open maze. What’s more, the maze was marked with a set of visible navigational cues to help the animals. Yet many of them could not find the exit. On the other hand, all the male mice who had not been exposed to BPA found the correct exit quickly – some on the first day. Adding to the strong evidence that the BPA dramatically changed the ability of the male mice to navigate normally, the scientists found that the non-BPA exposed mice quickly learned the most direct approach to finding the correct hole, while the exposed males appeared to sort of randomly and inefficiently wander around looking. The female deer mice also were turned off by potential mates who had been exposed to BPA. In a mate choice experiment, the scientists measured the females’ level of interest in a stranger male by observing specific behaviors, such as nose-to-nose sniffing and the amount of time the female spent checking out her potential partner. According to Dr. Rosenfeld, both non-exposed and BPA-exposed females strongly preferred control males over BPA-exposed males. “These findings presumably have broad implications to other species, including humans, where there are also innate differences between males and females in cognitive and behavioral patterns,” Rosenfeld said in the media statement. “In the wide scheme of things, these behavioral deficits could, in the long term, undermine the ability of a species such as the deer mouse to reproduce in the wild. Whether there are comparable health threats to humans remains unclear, but there clearly must be a concern.” This research, which is set for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , is the latest in a mounting and damning array of studies showing the dangers of BPA. For example, as NaturalNews has covered extensively, BPA has been found to cause precancerous conditions, kidney and developmental problems in animals. And research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that humans could be walking time bombs of health problems related to the ingestion of BPA, which is found in virtually all packaged foods. The JAMA study reported for the first time that the chemical might well be linked to the epidemic of heart disease and diabetes in this country (http://www.naturalnews.com/024207_BPA_health_plastics.html). Editor’s note: NaturalNews is opposed to the use of animals in medical experiments that expose them to harm. We present these findings in protest of the way in which they were acquired. For more information: http://www.naturalnews.com/BPA.html http://www.missouri.edu/

Low-carb diet may reverse kidney failure in diabetics, says new research

(NaturalNews) A new study shows that a low carbohydrate, high fat diet, used typically to treat and control seizures in children with epilepsy, may reverse kidney failure in people with diabetes. Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found that the ketogenic (low carbs, high fat) diet is useful as many cells can get energy from ketones. Ketones are molecules produced when the blood glucose levels are low and blood fat levels are high. It has been shown that when cells use ketones instead of glucose for energy, glucose is not metabolized. As high glucose metabolism is what causes kidney failure in diabetics, the Mount Sinai researchers theorized that introducing a ketogenic diet would work to block the toxic and very harmful effects of the glucose. Charles Mobbs, PhD, professor of neuroscience and geriatrics and palliative care medicine at Mount Sinai and his team studied mice that were genetically predisposed to have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The mice were allowed to develop kidney failure. Half of the mice were then fed a ketogenic diet while the other half was kept on a standard diet high in carbohydrates. The researchers found that the half on the ketrogenic diet had their kidney failure completely reversed after eight weeks. “Our study is the first to show that a dietary intervention alone is enough to reverse this serious complication of diabetes.” Said Dr. Mobbs, “This finding has significant implications for the tens of thousands of Americans diagnosed with diabetic kidney failure and possibly other complications each year.” Keeping in mind the extreme guidelines of the diet, it is not a realistic long term solution in adults, but the research suggests that one month on the diet may be enough to “reset” the process that leads to kidney failure. The team also found a large array of genes expressed during diabetic nephropathy not previously known to be involved with the development of that specific complication. The team also came to find that the expression of those genes was also reversed while on the diet. Dr. Mobbs and his team have plans to continue on with their research on the impact of the ketogenic diet and the way in which it reverses kidney failure. He also believes that the diet could help treat other neurological diseases and retinopathy, a disease that results in vision loss. “We look forward to studying this promising development further.” Dr. Mobbs stated enthusiastically. The findings of this study have been published in the current issue of PLoS ONE Sources for this story include http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/tmsh-lcd041311.php

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